About
Applied economist using causal inference, digital trace data and machine learning to evaluate public policies, public-sector digitalization and institutional quality.
I hold a doctoral degree in Law and Economics from the University of Molise. My empirical work draws on difference-in-differences designs, web scraping, machine learning and text mining applied to web, social-media and administrative data.
- Apr 2026 Presented at the CSI/Istat seminar «Raccontare il territorio attraverso la statistica pubblica», University of Valle d'Aosta — paper on the determinants of financial sustainability of Lazio municipalities (with V. Borzetti).
- Apr 2026 PhD in Law and Economics conferred at the University of Molise (XXXVIII cycle).
- Feb 2026 Talk on digital indicators of territorial dynamics at Le transizioni nei sistemi territoriali, University of Foggia.
- Nov 2025 Presented at the EUI Centre for a Digital Society annual conference on Understanding and Addressing Digital Inequalities (Florence).
- Jul 2025 Co-organiser and presenter at CARMA 2025 (Rome) — two papers in collaboration with Universitat Politècnica de València and University of Molise.
- 2025 New paper in Scientific Reports: Text mining and machine learning reveal global determinants of food insecurity (with Carneiro, Resce et al.).
My doctoral training was based at the University of Molise (XXXVIII cycle, 2022–2026), with a research stay at the Universitat Politècnica de València under Prof. Josep Domenech. My work has appeared in Scientific Reports and the Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, and has been presented at international venues including CARMA, AISRe, SIE and the EUI Centre for a Digital Society.
Active research lines cover EU cohesion policy, digital divide and digital public services, institutional quality and governance. The unifying thread is the use of digital footprints — municipal websites, search trends, social platforms — combined with quasi-experimental methods to recover credible policy effects.
Research interests & methods
- Research areas
- Policy evaluation; EU cohesion and structural funds; digital divide and digital public services; institutional quality and governance; public economics; health and food security.
- Causal inference
- Generalized and staggered Difference-in-Differences; panel data econometrics; bibliometric and quasi-experimental designs.
- Machine learning & NLP
- Text mining, word embeddings, supervised classification.
- Digital trace data
- Web scraping, social media data, high-frequency online data, integration with administrative micro-data.
- Tools
- R · Stata · Python · LaTeX
Professional experience
Evidence-based regional policy analysis through administrative, territorial and public-finance data; evaluation of municipal economic and financial sustainability under the Territorial Public Accounts framework.
Data-driven analytics on web-scraped, social-media and digital-trace data to monitor socioeconomic phenomena in real time. Text mining, readability measures and machine learning applied to public-sector communication, public services and territorial dynamics, with research outputs and policy reports for institutions and decision-makers.
Doctoral research at the intersection of applied economics and digital methods. Empirical studies using Difference-in-Differences, panel data econometrics, web scraping, machine learning and NLP, with applications to EU cohesion policy, public-sector digitalization, municipal communication and institutional quality. Visiting scholar at Universitat Politècnica de València (Jan–Jul 2024).
Empirical research on public-sector performance, healthcare efficiency and equity in the post-pandemic Italian health system, contributing to outputs on fiscal constraints and health inequality.
Data-driven analysis of food insecurity trends and determinants for the International Center for Tropical Agriculture, combining text mining of textual sources with structured indicators to support evidence-based development policy.
Support to the Managing Authority on the implementation of the evaluation plan and impact evaluation of PON Research and Innovation 2014–2020: research mobility, public investment and EU Cohesion Policy.
Education
Public economics · Policy evaluation · Development economics · Data analytics. Visiting scholar at Universitat Politècnica de València (Jan–Jul 2024, supervisor: Prof. Josep Domenech).
Microeconomics, macroeconomics, institutional economics, econometrics.
International trade, digital strategy, geopolitics.
Awards & credentials
- Award Recognised among the top 1,000 graduates in Italy for economic disciplines (2019).
- Credential Chartered Accountant — Albo Dottori Commercialisti (2022).
- Credential Statutory Auditor — Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance (2023).
Advanced training
- Advanced Econometrics & Applied Econometrics and Big Data LSE Summer School — Dr. M. Schafgans, Dr. M. Gmeiner; Prof. T. Komarova
- Modern Causal Inference: Bridging Theory and Practice Summer School in Advanced Economics — Prof. J. M. Wooldridge, Prof. P. Sant'Anna
- Introductory Econometrics & Panel Data Econometrics SIdE — Prof. G. Calzolari (2024); Prof. M. E. Bontempi, Prof. R. Golinelli, Dr. I. Mammi (2024)
- Evaluation of Development Policies International School for Advanced Training — Prof. P. Montalbano, Prof. F. C. Rosati, Prof. C. Pietrobelli (2023)
- Professional Certificate in Data Science Harvard Online (2023)